Queenstown's historic steamship TSS Earnslaw has been caught in a classification row which a planning expert says increases its risk of sinking.
Until recently, the ship's owner, tourism company Real Journeys, did not need resource consent to upgrade the vessel - which plies Lake Wakatipu - or its Kelvin Peninsula slipway.
But last September the Queenstown Lakes District Council issued a stopwork notice after being alerted to the slipway's hardwood beams being replaced with steel ones.
Consultant planner Ben Farrell said work on the slipway ceased for six months, until consent was granted in March.
However, council records show Real Journeys' consent application was not submitted until February this year.
Mr Farrell said the council's "intervention'' caused "significant risks, costs and inconveniences'' to Real Journeys.
Mr Farrell's evidence to the council's proposed district plan said those risks to TSS Earnslaw included "the risk of the ship sinking was increased because she could not be slipped if seriously damaged''.
However, lawyer Sarah Scott, for the council, said in her opening submissions the council had a legal obligation to enforce the district plan.
"There was no prosecution or abatement/infringement notice, as Real Journeys acknowledged its breach, agreed to cease works and sought retrospective consent.''
She said the inference by Mr Farrell the council had acted inappropriately was not accepted.
Real Journeys challenged the council's regulation of the Earnslaw and slipway.
The machinery on the slipway is older than the Earnslaw, which was launched in October 1912. The engine and boiler used to pull the ship on to the slipway are from the original paddle steamer Antrim, which was launched in 1893. It is the country's oldest surveyed and operational boiler.
Mr Farrell argued Earnslaw did not sit "comfortably'' in the district plan. And he said the slipway, which is on council reserve land, should be demoted from a heritage status of category two, to category three.
Its moderate values were not "very significant'' to the district, especially since its original timber foundations, which were rotten or rotting, had been replaced with concrete.
Ms Scott recommended the council remove Earnslaw from its inventory but said the slipway listing fell entirely within its "historic heritage'' definition.
